This paper aims to provide an in-depth investigation of the role of social media
images in conveying the meaning of “power” and “empowerment” in public antiviolence campaigns that aim to empower women in the Middle East. The research
raises three qualitative questions of the way anti-violence adverts have represented
Arab women in the social media; the way Arab societal culture affects the image
of women represented in the adverts; and the extent to which these social adverts
have empowered women to transfer their realities against domestic violence. The
researcher uses a purposeful sample of six social campaigns that addressed
women violence organized by six non-profit and governmental entities in different
Arab countries in the period between 2013 and 2018. The paper used the theoretical
framework offered by Cohen-Eliya and Hammer (2004) to analyze the extent to
which these social media adverts have “empowered” women against domestic
violence. The input of this framework is that it studies how visual adverts have
constructed relationships of power regarding the stereotypes of women in the
Middle East. The paper finds that although these social media adverts aim to fight
domestic violence, they enhance traditional stereotype of weak women and fall
short of addressing the concept of “empowerment” through focusing on
stereotypical images of powerless women. The paper highlights the need for new
social media communication that would utilize the opportunities provided by
social media to establish a new “transformative” image of the Arab woman about
her cultural context. Moreover, the paper suggests that the concept of
“empowerment” should be addressed at both individual and cultural levels
through cooperating with governmental and non-profit organizations using social
media communication to provide women with access to resources.